President Donald Trump’s appearance at a White House news conference Feb. 15 with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reminded me of my grandmother, may she rest in peace, who often grumbled about Israeli leaders. She usually signed off from her carping with a heavy sigh and muttered, “But heaven help us, he’s our very own fool.” An Israeli listening to Trump’s remarks clearly saw a leader who doesn't bother doing his homework or studying for exams. Trump’s understanding of the ins and outs of the Arab-Israeli conflict barely measures up to that of an average Israeli news consumer. An Israeli might say, “But Trump is not our fool. He’s the Americans’ problem.” The late Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol would have responded to that, saying, “When the United States sneezes, Israel comes down with pneumonia.”
The backdrop, staging and goodwill gestures were perfect in Washington. The citizens of Israel saw their prime minister and his spouse being welcomed to the top of the world like royalty. The nefarious expression “Palestinian state” failed to mar the cloying sweetness. The leader of the free world released the Israeli government from the curse of Netanyahu’s 2009 Bar-Ilan speech espousing a two-state solution. For the Israeli right, this is worth more than the coveted relocation of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a Trump campaign promise the president doesn’t seem about to fulfill.
